Ceviche, in a Flash

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SUSHI and sashimi opened the door to raw fish; salmon tartares and tuna carpaccios took it beyond Japanese restaurants and onto mainstream tables everywhere. Now, ceviche has expanded the world of flavors and textures created in fish when no cooking is involved.

This simple preparation, which has long been everyday fare in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Mexico, essentially consists of marinating small pieces of fish fillets or shellfish in citrus juice and seasoning them with red onion and herbs or chilies. They are transformed by the marinade, leaving them lightly pickled but still raw. It's a formula, a culinary blank canvas, that begs to be varied, and it's one that need not intimidate home cooks.

American chefs are certainly taking up the challenge, tackling ceviche with a Picassoesque fervor and coming up with an inventive style that often eliminates -- or greatly abridges -- the traditional marination.

Le Bernardin, the Lenox Room, Local, Oceana, ''21'' Club, Quilty's and Bond Street are just a few places that include ceviche among their appetizers. At Balthazar, the giant seafood platters placed on table stands include ceviche in addition to shrimp, mussels, lobster, and clams and oysters on the half shell.

Some of these new-wave ceviches incorporate ingredients unlikely to be encountered in a cevicheria in Quito, Ecuador, like pomegranate seeds, pistachios, ginger, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce. But then they are usually made to order like selections at a sushi bar, rather than steeping in their marinades for hours. The texture is less chewy, and the flavor is certainly fresher.

''Ceviche has now become just a step away from sushi and sashimi,'' said Aaron Sanchez, who has worked at several nuevo Latino places, including Patria, and who will be the chef at Isla when it opens in October in Greenwich Village. Diners have become more accustomed to raw fish, he said, and the other ingredients in his ceviches, like strips of toasted coconut, become ''little punches of flavor'' that do not camouflage the fresh fish.

The ceviches Mr. Sanchez is creating to serve on a platter for two at Isla sparkle with flavor and character. The velvety richness of raw tuna is enhanced by the salty tang of soy sauce; the sweetness of scallops in coconut milk is balanced by lime and chilies; tender squid is tossed in a vibrant herb dressing, and oysters are sharpened with onion, chilies and vinegar.

The traditional acidic marinade literally transformed the fish, essentially ''cooking'' it, but also rendering it chewier. And that's why chefs are abandoning it.

''With the quality of the fish we get now, you don't want to mask anything,'' said Eric Ripert, the chef at Le Bernardin, where ceviches are now on the menu. ''Everything is flash-marinated these days. They're even changing the way they do it in Peru. It's better, because with longer marinating, the fish gets too firm and loses its identity.''

Mr. Ripert, who has visited South America several times, has developed a ceviche made with sea urchin, cilantro, lime and a drop of vodka, and another combining scallops, lemon juice and a touch of olive oil.

Matthew Kenney's ideas for ceviche are further along than his restaurant where he plans to serve them, Metrazur, in Grand Central Terminal. ''My ceviches will be about presentation and flavor, a cross, in principle, between sashimi and traditional ceviche,'' he said. ''They'll be a big part of the raw bar.''

Among the ceviches he's working on are some traditional combinations like tuna with lime and avocado, and red snapper with chilies, and also others using fresh anchovies with lemon or shrimp with fresh fennel and a touch of pomegranate.

Despite all the new flavors and seasonings, and even the revolutionary speed with which ceviches are now being made, tradition has not been abandoned.

Chefs are still using citrus, onion and chilies, three of the hallmarks of the dish, even as they add new seasonings. Nobu Matsuhisa, the Japanese chef and co-owner of Nobu and Next Door Nobu, who worked in Peru for many years, says that red onion is one of ceviche's defining ingredients and that he would never make a ceviche without it.

Another characteristic of a classic ceviche, the cut of the fish, remains essential to the new versions.

The seafood is usually cut in uniform small chunks, as distinguished from the extremely fine dice of a tartare, the little slabs of sushi or the sheer, almost translucent slices of a carpaccio or its Japanese cousin, usuzukuri. A type of ceviche called tiradito in Peru, though, is made with thin slices of fish, not chunks. At Bolivar, the tiradito of sea bass is accurately, if cross-culturally, described on the menu as carpaccio.

Mr. Matsuhisa says that tiradito is similar to ceviche but is made by tossing thin slices of fish in a bowl with citrus juice and seasonings. A similar Mexican dish is called tiritas. In her book ''Cuisine of the Water Gods'' (Simon & Schuster, 1994), the Mexican food writer Patricia Quintana described the dish as similar to one made by indigenous fishermen on the west coast of Mexico, around Zihautanejo, near Acapulco, that was described by Balboa, who landed there in 1513.

Not all ceviches are made with raw fish. Shrimp, lobster, mussels, octopus, squid and sometimes clams and conch are lightly cooked before being marinated. Ceviches with no seafood at all are also typical in South America, however new wave they sound in New York. Frederic Kieffer will be serving an avocado ceviche garnished with a tomato granita at the soon-to-open Southwest NY in the World Financial Center.

The concept of the ceviche bar, like those at Bolivar, Sonora and Patria, may also sound innovative, but in Latin America cevicherias usually offer more than a dozen different ceviches, often served with popcorn or roasted corn to nibble alongside, and in Peru, with chunks of baked sweet potato.

At tables or at the bar at Bolivar, customers can select from a list that includes ceviches made with fluke, tuna, octopus and oysters as well as a tiradito. Lime and hot peppers figure in most of them. Sonora offers an array of mixed seafood ceviches, including a Peruvian black ceviche made with squid ink, an Ecuadorean ceviche with a three-citrus marinade, a Colombian version with vinegar and chives in addition to citrus, and a Chilean one that has a dash of mustard in the marinade.

At Sonora, those who are interested can even try a Peruvian custom of drinking the marinade juices as a pick-me-up (and a hangover cure) after eating the ceviche. The tangy, murky liquid served in a shot glass is called leche de tigre or tiger's milk. At Bolivar, it's to be sipped off the saucer. It's an acquired taste.

But increasingly, ceviche is not. For the home cook, top-quality seafood is essential. When in doubt about the freshness of the tuna or the red snapper at your neighborhood fish market, substitute a more reliable seafood like cooked shrimp. All the other ingredients for ceviche are produce-stand regulars.

The cutting of seafood for ceviche also does not require the kind of expert knife work demanded by a sashimi, tartare or carpaccio recipe. A simple half-inch dice is perfect. With the new quick-marinating technique, home cooks can have bright-tasting ceviches on the table in minutes.

The tiger's milk is optional.

CEVICHE VERDE

Adapted from Isla

Time: 50 minutes

1 pound cleaned squid, in 1/2-inch rings

1 chopped jalapeno pepper

3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon dry oregano, preferably Mexican

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, finely chopped

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add squid and cook 30 seconds. Drain, and place in ice water.

2. Place jalapeno pepper, garlic, oregano, vinegar and 1/4 cup water in a blender, and puree. Transfer to a bowl, and add parsley, cilantro, olive oil and lime juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain squid, and add. Marinate 15 minutes, then serve.

2. About an hour before serving, drain liquid off tomatoes and add to onion mixture. Fold in chives and cilantro. Add scallops, and toss. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow to marinate about 30 minutes, then serve.

Yield: 6 servings.

TIRITAS OF FISH ZIHUATANEJO STYLE

Adapted from ''Cuisine of the Water Gods''

by Patricia Quintana (Simon & Schuster, 1994)

Time: 25 minutes

2 pounds sea bass or red snapper fillets, in 1/4-by-2-inch strips

1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice

1/4 cup finely sliced Serrano or jalapeno peppers

2 cups finely sliced red onion

1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican

Sea salt to taste

Large unsalted tortilla chips.

Place fish in a shallow dish. Toss with lime juice, and marinate 10 minutes. Add peppers, onion, oregano and salt, and toss. Serve with tortilla chips.

Yield: 8 servings.

MUSHROOM CEVICHE

Adapted from ''The Art of South American Cooking''

by Felipe Rojas-Lombardi (HarperCollins, 1991)

Time: 1 1/2 hours

1 pound small white button mushrooms

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 half-inch piece fresh ginger, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped

Coarse salt to taste

1/4 cup finely chopped scallions

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1/4 cup finely minced red bell pepper.

1. Place mushrooms in a bowl and toss with olive oil. In another bowl, combine lemon juice, garlic, ginger, jalapeno pepper and salt to taste. Add mushrooms, and marinate 30 minutes at room temperature.

2. Add the scallions and dill, and marinate for another 30 minutes. Check the seasonings, sprinkle with diced red pepper and serve.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

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